This recent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, which ends on June 16th, was the first exhibition that I have visited since the recent re-opening of the Gallery. It did not disappoint.

I thought this exhibition, which focused on the two most influential women photographers, Francesca Woodman and Julia Margaret Cameron, was so beautifully curated.

I have found that exhibiting photographs is quite difficult due to their size and so curators try and compensate for this by put as many as possible to fill in the space. However, Magdalene Keany, the curator, did not do this at all.

The exhibition managed to include many photographs without making the space feel cramped or crowded. The way in which they were grouped made total sense as well. I really enjoyed the ‘meshing’ of the two photographers rather than just placing them one after another. It allowed for the exhibition to really flow.

This blending of the two photographers meant that the viewer could compare and contrast them, and how different photography had become through the years – Cameron, being active in the late 19th Century, and Woodman being at the forefront of 1970s photography.

Cameron focused on facial portraits and I would describe her style as ‘whimsical’, I feel almost as if I am dreaming when I see her work. All of the women look quite melancholy as they stare into the eyes of the viewer.

Woodman, however, also makes me feel as if I am dreaming, but not in the same way as Cameron. Her worls focus more on the naked human form rather than the face, a major contrast to that of Cameron. The unashamed nudity that Woodman chooses to depict is a much more modern ideology, especially as the 1970s featured the second wave of feminism, which was masively influential and inspiring.

The exhibition started as you walked into this room. The walls were painted a lovely shade of blue which was rich and darker at the top and then had an ombre into a much paler blue at the bottom. This allowed for your eyes to relax much more than if it was just one colour. The lighting fell perfectly onto the two photographs displayed on this wall.

This was the only seperate room in this whol exhibition. The exhibition was quite small and mainly had screen divides rather than walls. I believe that this worked very well. It allowed the exhibition to feel gentle and soft.

Although the photographs were grouped, it did mean that a lot of them blended into one, especially with Cameron’s works. This however probably could not be helped. The exhibition overall felt quite relaxed, which allowed for gentle floating about. The walls in the main section of the exhibit were painted a soft pink, which I enjoyed immensly.

Many of Cameron’s works seemed to use the women as models, in the same way that they would have posed for painters – this shows the influences of the time, with the pre-raphalites being the predominant English group of artists at the time.

The main highlight of this exhibition for me was this triptych featured in the middle of the exhibition. The blue colour palette against the red and white ombréd wall it is resting on. These three photographs were all life-sized, they dominated the space, and their placement and the colour chosen for the wall just made this room perfect. The positioning of these pieces reminded me of Rothko, whether this was intentional or not I do not know, but I loved it regardless.

The exhibition carried on in a similar fashion to how it began, but now the walls were a soft duck egg blue instead of the pastel pink it was before the triptych.

The coupling of the two photographers started to really shine in this section of the exhibition – the themes they chose to explore and the execution of this, whilst being decades apart, is extremely interesting and very well emphasised through the placement and grouping of the photographs.

This ending section, however, also showed their differences in what they chose to depict. Whether this be by choice, or due to social stigma it is uncertain.

Woodman seems to focus more on the nude female form and what it can demonstrate, whereas Cameron use the female form as more of a vessel to highlight beauty. Woodman’s photography is very second nature, with most of the photographs feeling natural and making us feel as if we are watching the picture move as if we were there.

Cameron’s photography, although natural, seems much more staged than Cameron’s. They seem a lot more cohesive however, the theme is obvious.

Both of these photographer’s were, and are, extremely influential and this exhibition really emphasised this. The exhibition was very small and for this I am grateful. It is very easy to just take every piece of art from an artist and bunch it together, which can create a very overwhelming experience. This was not the case with this exhibition, all the photographers appear to be carefully picked and relevant to the overall message of the exhibition.

The National Portrait Gallery has only been open again for a year and it is already hostin such enjoyable and well-thought-out exhibitions. I am excited to see this progress further.